Insanely cool graphics and intersting lore! I was hooked from the start by the dark atmosphere. I love how artistic the shader is and how much "weirdness" it adds to the game. Unfortunatelly I had some issues with the gameplay in web-build and playing with mouse (though Im not sure if it's due to my PC speks or browser settings?) - the camera felt really slow and didnt follow my mouse properly, and the combat felt a bit laggy to me. 

This was honestly a really enjoyable experience. The atmosphere and overall presentation stood out immediately  it felt way more polished than most jam entries. The visuals, especially the lighting/shader work, were super well done and added a lot to the mood. Gameplay wise, I had a good time, though there were a few moments where things felt slightly off like occasionally struggling with mouse aiming but nothing game breaking of sort, Well done!

I remember you posting progress on the discord server so I thought to check it out
I feel like I just played a Hollow Knight 3D made during a game jam, that is incredible how you two pulled off all of this!

Destructible objects that look fantastic (I actually would love to know how you guys did it), the art style is really good and I enjoyed killing enemies and collecting orbs!

I wish I could finish the game though, I suck at soulslikes and the  game is quite hard as I struggle on dodging with rolling, I wasn't made to be a vessel..

Wow! Very impressive and ambitious! I mean wow.

I was really excited to break out a gamepad - that almost never happens in a game jam. The game feel felt good. Of course it could feel better but for a game jam it was a SOLID A+. The main thing I felt that could be improved was the stun - when I got hit I lost the ability to control my character for a bit. This makes sense but there was no feedback so it just felt bugged. Not a big deal.

Tutorials, save points, and the ability to smash everything was all so good. I had lots of fun just wreaking havoc everywhere. Can I knock over books? Yes! Can I destroy furniture? Yes! Really nice.

Oh, and the madness swirls in the shadows were a great touch.

Did you just make a Dark Souls in 7 days? Incredible! Well done!

i remember seeing this game in one of the development screenshots, and it already caught my eye back then. i remember thinking: wow, this looks really polished and ambitious for a jam game. so it was cool to see it here and finally be able to play it

first small issue for me was the menu: for some reason the mouse didn’t work there, or at least i couldn’t use it. maybe it is intended to be keyboard or gamepad, but it was a bit unexpected at first

small thing about controls: for some reason i didn’t notice the interaction key in the game at first, and i also didn’t see it in the itch page description. not a big problem, but personally i think E or F would feel more natural for interaction than Space, because they are more common for that in games

i also really like the post-processing effect with those moving shimmering circles. it looks cool and adds a lot to the mood. one small thing: sometimes it feels like the texture is sliding over the objects because it moves relative to the camera. maybe it would feel even better if it was more locked to the world position

combat felt a bit too locked for me. attack animations block movement for quite a long time, and if i click a few times, the game seems to queue attacks, so sometimes i wanted to move away but the character kept attacking

enemy hits also stagger you, so together with the long attack locks it can feel like you lose control for too long. i understand the souls-like idea of commitment, but here it felt a bit too heavy for me. maybe shorter locks, less input queueing or a small cancel window would help

overall, the game is cool. i liked exploring this strange mysterious mansion, and the atmosphere has some nice Bloodborne-like vibes

it feels like a serious and ambitious jam project with its own little world. even without a map, the level design felt pretty intuitive most of the time, and i usually understood where i could go next from the environment

A souls like? In a game jam? Unheard of! My favorite type of game and a really good one too. My only criticism is that the camera moves ways to slow and the could be a bit more enemies placed on the map.

This is an incredibly polished piece, the visual design is frankly, unratable on a 5 star system, this is a piece that looks like a professional game, the gameplay needs some polish, and the random sound effects inside the building are too loud and frequent, your font is too small too.
the fact that i have to nitpick such small critiques should be an example of how far this game has blown expectation, there just isn't enough words to describe the positives, you did amazing. c:

Silence Of The Ancients - Elzach

Final Score: 4/5 Stars

The game starts with a brutal art style, with absurd line art. The menu is responsive and the music demonstrates the suspense I expect according to the story description.

While the rest of the menu is responsive, I noticed that the Options menu doesn't work, or at least it doesn't seem to work for me.

Just like the initial menu, upon starting the game, the Close Game responsiveness also proved to be nonexistent.

The HUD is simple but has the essentials we need to progress, as well as a simple inventory.

The pause button doesn't actually pause the game, which could become a problem eventually.

Just like the menu, the game's art direction, for something made in 7 days, and for something in the current indie scene of solo devs, is absurdly beautiful.

As we walk, we have a tutorial course explaining the game's keys.

The game has good controller compatibility, being as responsive on the keyboard as on the controller itself.

I don't think low FPS is native to the gameplay, because it would somewhat disrupt the standard combat of Souls-like games, so I reckon this is a flaw in the optimization.

The game showed significant frame rate drops in fullscreen, being more optimal in windowed mode.

The game's atmosphere is something that easily grabs attention. Not only that, but the fact that the game actually has a story to follow and the surreal elements that incorporate it.

In terms of combat, I noticed a significant lack of fluidity and visual feedback, which is a bit of a letdown, since our focus in a Souls-like game is always on gameplay and combat in general. This has been lacking so far with the first enemies.

The idea of mixing mystery with Souls-like elements is well implemented.

On a technical note, upon death, the player continues to be attacked by enemies.

Sometimes the camera collision glitches, causing glitches and allowing us to see parts of the map we shouldn't through walls.

The gameplay loop is interesting, with the idea of fighting, exploring to find clues, and unlocking new parts of both the story and the map.

Unfortunately, due to some collision errors in the library tunnels, I ended up falling off the map and into limbo; fortunately, the game recognized this and flagged it as a glitch.

Sometimes you can lock onto enemies through walls.

The Ballroom Boss has a different look from all the other enemies, which makes it stand out. Its moveset is slower, but at the same time it's very easy to avoid and defeat.

Defeating the Ballroom Boss doesn't exactly guarantee any reward, so it makes it a bit pointless.

Sometimes the enemy's idle animation glitches, and it gets stuck in A pose buried in the ground as if it didn't have a humanoid animation.

Overall, I was satisfied with the game, considering it was completed in such a short time. I couldn't finish it due to a lack of visual cues on what to do next.

Aside from that, the gameplay was lacking in combat, but the visual polish was immense.

This game is great. Super impressive for the time period. Lots of fun and the souls like setup is familiar and well done. Only complaint is the camera movement is way too slow overall.

Creating a soulslike in 7 days might be one of the most ambitious ideas here, loved the art style! 

Very ambitious project for 7 days! I prefer games without buffered inputs, but I think I'm in the minority there. My laptop ran this better than some other games from this jam but it was still struggling enough that I tapped out early.